


nobody wants to hear you sing about tragedy

by disarmed



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:02:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22223005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disarmed/pseuds/disarmed
Summary: Tonight could be the end of the world. He'll laugh in the face of danger and blow the girl a kiss, but she knows what tomorrow will bring.
Relationships: Elena Gilbert/Damon Salvatore
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11





	nobody wants to hear you sing about tragedy

**Author's Note:**

> in an effort to save some of the older fandom works (rip lj), i'm cross-posting mine here. warnings: mild gore, character death. 
> 
> author's notes as of 2011.03.04: Based on this one line. I will not kiss you, because the hardest part of this, is leaving you.

  
Klaus steps into Mystic Falls and turns the town into a slaughter mill. He has witches and warlocks and werewolves, and they come in the night and tear down the town with Elena's name imprinted on their doings. They're here for the doppelganger, and they're not going to leave without her. They snap spines and break necks, and Klaus reins them in for a brief moment to count down from ten, hand her over; _now._  
  
Elena Gilbert is locked in her bedroom, banging at the door and leaving empty threats in the air. She has wet marks on her face and red eyes; with a fire inside that burns bright and brilliant. Her fingertips are raw and scraped, but the window hasn't budged, and her voice is gravel on the road, but no one has answered her. She can hear nothing but the screech of tyres and the cries of despair as she stares out her window.  
  
Tonight, the dark is filled with all the creatures and monsters Elena Gilbert once was told never existed.  
  
::  
  
Everything goes quiet for just under an hour. Elena presses her palms to the glass and breathes little clouds upon it. They appear and fade and appear and fade, and she both does and doesn't want to see a face staring back at her when the glass is clear.  
  
She tried breaking the glass about two hours ago. It didn't work. Bonnie and Lucy had done their jobs far too well, it would seem. She is like Rapunzel in her tower, except without the hair and the pretty, fairy tale ending. She is raw and red and tear stained, with a heart that flutters in agony for the people she only wants to protect.  
  
Below her, somewhere in the house, a door slams open and a howl splits through the silence like an axe through dry wood. There's a heavy skittering along the wooden floors, and Elena's heart beats double time in her white boned ribcage, and her breath comes in short, sweet gasps. She rushes across the room and plucks the stake out from her bedside drawer. (Everyone thought she wouldn't be prepared. She's also got wolfsbane and vervain in the drawer below, mixed up in water bottles.)  
  
She steps away from the bed and holds her breath for a moment, shutting her eyes in a futile attempt to just wish it all away. A guttural growl rips through the house and something smashes - glass? There's the crack of something heavy and an agonized, high pitched whine.  
  
When Elena opens her eyes, Katherine is standing in the doorway.  
  
::  
  
She is a brilliant and bloodied mess, the most unlikely ally, with wild eyes and lithe limbs, lips turned up into the hint of a smirk. Elena has known Katherine long enough, though, to see the unsteadiness in her pose, the tense lift of her shoulders.  
  
Katherine opens her mouth to reveal blood stained teeth. "We're winning."  
  
Elena's hand jumps to her forehead and she exhales heavily. She goes to say something, something positive and angry and furious and grateful, but then she sees the twitch to Katherine's right hand - the one covered in blood and yellowed, viscous fluid.  
  
Katherine is _lying._  
  
Elena rushes to the boundary of her doorway. She can't step past the frame, nor can Katherine enter. Bonnie and Lucy made sure of that before they went rushing off into the darkness. Katherine teeters on the edge, though. Her toes press the lines in her boots, body thrumming as she tilts her head. She drinks in Elena's stressed and frazzled form, hovering in the doorway.  
  
"Don't lie to me, Katherine." Elena's voice is too high and it shakes.  
  
Katherine just smiles. In that sudden, quick-flash of vampire movement, she whips her head in the direction of the stairs. She has her back to Elena in seconds, just in time to meet the silver-gray wolf hurtling up the stairs. She takes the attack head-on, hands grappling around the creature's neck as she avoids it's snapping, salivating jaws. Elena bangs helplessly against an invisible wall as Katherine flits around the wolf's form, a little close, a little too daring.  
  
It's a quick, sudden movement that has Katherine on her back, fingers searching for purchase in the wolf's ruff as it snaps at her. Elena can see the momentary panic in Katherine's dark eyes before a blue-black blur comes up the stairs and tears the animal off of Katherine's body.  
  
::  
  
Damon grips the sides of the wolf's head in his hands and yanks back, snapping its neck in one fluid movement. He drops it to the ground instantly. Katherine is on her feet in a split second, looking angry and unamused. She opens her mouth but Damon beats her to it.  
  
"That's what you get when you tear the spine out of a werewolf's mate and leave it on the doorstep."  
  
Katherine scowls. "I thought it would make a nice welcome mat."  
  
Damon rolls his eyes. "Just get down there and move it, would you?" Katherine looks ready to argue, but then flits away.  
  
" _Damon!_ " Elena is outraged. How dare they stand there and converse as if she doesn't exist. She is right here, damnit. He turns to face her. "What the _hell_ is going on out there?" She bangs futilely against the invisible barrier. "Tell me, Damon!" His shirt is ripped and he has blood stains on his collar. He looks better than Katherine, but just as quietly wild. This just makes her angrier. "You have _no_ right to lock me up like this, none of you -- no one is telling me anything, no one is here, what's going _on?_ "  
  
Damon's eyes are blue ice. "Caroline had her head ripped from her shoulders ten minutes after Liz lost hers. Tyler's lost his left arm. " He barrels over Elena's horrified gasp. "Stefan is fine, Jenna is a alive and safe, but Alaric had to lose his heart for that one -- _literally_. The witches are roughed up but managing. Your brother's alive by sheer _luck_." He almost sneers. "Was there anything else you'd like to know?"  
  
Elena's world is crumbling down on her shaking shoulders. Damon turns on his heel. "Wait!" She watches through watery eyes as he stops, shoulders tense. "Damon." It comes out just as helpless as she feels. "I can't _do_ this."  
  
He's up against her invisible barrier in seconds. "Yes you can, and you will." There's a burning to his eyes and a set to his jaw that Elena recognises. "We are out there, fighting, Elena, _dying_ , for you. So you can damned well _do_ this."  
  
"I never _asked_ you to!" She bursts out, lips tasting the words like acid. Damon looks both hurt and angry.  
  
"You still don't get it," he murmurs to her, "you never _had_ to _ask_."  
  
It's like the barrier the witches put up is gone -- even though Elena knows it isn't -- because this is her and Damon arguing once more, in each other's faces. He's not six inches from her, a little beat up and a little bloodied, with eyes that burn with something she's seen many times before. They hold that gaze for a moment, a silent battle, before Damon drops his arm to the doorway and leans his forehead against it. It looks strange, watching him lean against thin air, but it's an insignificant detail to Elena right now.  
  
Elena's voice sounds like someone else's when she speaks next. "Katherine said we're winning."  
  
Damon's answer is too quick. "We are." He pushes up, balancing back on his feet. "I'm just gonna go back out and help finish Klaus off, you know."  
  
"Don't do that --" She cuts herself off when she raises her hand, going to touch him, and meets resistance. Damon observes her curled fingers curiously. "Damon..."  
  
"Elena," he says, and she knows he's trying to sound amused for her. "You have no faith in me."  
  
"I've always had faith in you."  
  
Their silence makes a shrill scream down the road ten times louder. Elena winces. God, she never asked for this. She almost backs up a step when she notices Damon is right in front of her, so close to her wall block that he's almost touching it.  
  
"I could kiss you right now, Elena." He sounds a little amused now, genuinely. Elena points out dryly, "well, you can't," but he just smiles. "I'm not going to though." There's an anger now, burning inside her, and Damon can see it. "I'm going to go, I'm going to fight. I'm going to rip out a couple of hearts and decapitate a few people, maybe even try to kill an Original." His words are heavy on his tongue, and Elena feels herself respond to the deep, threatening notch in his voice. "Then, I'm going to come back, and I'm going to kiss you."  
  
Elena doesn't know what to say. Her lips are parted and dry, and her hands are clenched so tight the skin is pulling over the knuckles, going white. Her heart is a treacherous bird in a small space, chirping and beating its wings in mad approval. She wants to tell it to behave and not act so ridiculously. She looks at Damon, into his eyes, and sees it.  
  
The wild, reckless abandon. He's giving it all up, he's telling her now.  
  
"No, no Damon. _Don't_ \--"  
  
There's a bang downstairs. Damon pauses but relaxes. Elena figures it must be Katherine. "I'm going to come back for you, Elena."  
  
Katherine appears suddenly at the top of the stairs. Elena blinks back her tears and sniffs. This can not be her life. "Time to go." Katherine's voice is rich and drugged up on adrenaline. She has a mad gleam in her eye and a wicked smile. She can see that gleam in Damon's eyes. Damon just nods, tossing Elena a cocky smile.  
  
"You better." She says loudly when he's a few feet away. He turns back to face her, curious eyes and furrowed brows. Elena clears her throat, catches her tears in her lashes. "You better come back."  
  
He shoots her an infamous smirk, and then they're gone.  
  
Elena buries her face in her hands and feels wetness soak into her palms. She knows, of course she knows.  
  
::  
  
Stefan bursts through the door with blood and grime and sorrow ingrained in him, and Elena catches him in her arms and holds him close. His shoulders shake and his hands clutch at her desperately, and she presses her dry lips to his head and whispers, 'it's going to be okay.'  
  
Stefan just shakes his head and presses into her shoulder.  
  
The first rays of sun sneak through the window and Katherine appears in the doorway. Elena looks over Stefan's head. She doesn't need a second validation. She already knows. Katherine's eyes have lost their gleam, and her lips hold no hint of a smile.  
  
Elena pulls Stefan even closer.  
  
::  
  
She's right, of course.  
  
Damon never makes it back.


End file.
